Histories, Mysteries, and Strangeness: July 2013

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Interesting news and articles - July 21, 2013

Archaeology

'World's oldest calendar' discovered in Scottish field

Long-Lost Pyramids Found?

Unearthed Mayan Tablet Tells of Power Struggle

Nok’s 500BC terracotta heads

2,000-Year Old Pyramid and Multiple Pre-Columbian Burial Sites Found in Veracruz, Mexico

Cryptozoology

Do These Striking Sasquatch Photos Snapped on July 4th Show a Lumbering Monster or Man in a Suit?

Lake Monsters: Where Are The Bodies?

Why blood-drained carcases are not the work of chupacabras or supposedly vampiric cryptids --Makes a decent case against cattle mutilations being caused by chupacabras, but does little to solve the mystery as to what really causes it. Scroll down the Mysterious section for another article about mutilations.

Ghosts

Does reader pic capture ghostly apparition in Abergavenny's Skirrid Inn? --I'm skeptical...mostly because I don't see why the image should be as blurry as it is.

Mysterious

The man with no memory: Navy vet wakes up, speaks only Swedish -- Very bizarre.

Mutilations: Aliens? -- These livestock mutilations are one of the most bizarre mysteries to me. We actually have the evidence to study, yet no one has been able to determine who (or what) the culprit is after all these years.

Was Charlotte once hit by 'ball lightning'?

Psychic Phenomena

How a Slate writer resorts to the old "it isn't true because it cannot be true" reasoning -- An excellent rant by Stephen Wagner.

Science

Inner speech speaks volumes about the brain

Neural Dust could give us artificial telepathy and telekinesis

Space

Alien Probes Could Be Surfing the Galaxy

UFOs

Strange Sightings in New Milford: Extraterrestrial or Not? -- They could have been drones.

UFO Cover-Ups Must End, Moonwalker Edgar Mitchell Says

Self-replicating alien space probes could already be in our solar system, say mathematicians

Alien spaceships abducted our pet dog and stole our car in Cardiff

Other topics of interest...

The Science of Miracles: How the Vatican Decides

The First UFO Photo

A lot of the "early" UFO photos that we're familiar with come from the mid 1900's. However, the earliest known photo of a UFO actually dates back to the 1800's.

The image below was shot at Mount Washington, New Hampshire in 1870 or 1871 (although some sources have dated it to 1880 or as late as 1896). As you can see, there's a picture of what appears to be cloud formation...with what appears to be a cigar shaped UFO flying in front of it!

Here is a zoomed in image of the UFO.

So what is it? Airships already existed by 1870, but they weren't common until the 1900s. Could it be an image artifact? Or could it be something even more mundane? The list below is supposedly a list of pictures that includes this particular picture (it's suggested that number 17 is the picture above).

Nowhere on the list is a UFO mentioned though. You would think the photographers would have noted that if they saw a UFO...even if they didn't see it until after the photo was developed. It's also been said that the image is actually a bit of an illusion, not a distant image of a cloud but a close up image of a frost formation. So what is it really? Who knows for sure. There's a lot of recent UFO photographs that have debatable authenticity. This is just the earliest photo of debatable authenticity.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Interesting news and articles - July 14, 2013

Archaeology

Egyptian leader makes surprise appearance at archaeological dig in Israel --Sphinx fragment found in Israel.

Inscriptions found in Shanghai pre-date 'oldest Chinese language by 1,400 years'

'Vampire' Graves Uncovered in Poland

Cryptozoology

Beast of Bodmin spotted in Redruth

Charlie Sheen: I raised hell... and now I’ll raise Nessie -- Oh boy.

Mysterious

The Mystery of the Forest Swastikas

Unnatural Erratic Cloud Movement Or Something Else? --Probably some kind of illusion.

Did Mothman visit the UK in 1963?

Space

Why R2-D2 Would be the PERFECT Moon Rover

Next Mars Rover to Pack Microscope, Look for Fossils

UFOs

Australia UFO Changes Shape And Colors (VIDEOS)

Snowden UFO Data Connection --An article that is skeptical about another article claiming that Edward Snowden is ready to release UFO documents. I'm glad someone wrote an article about it because I read the original article and thought it just sounded absurd (I'm not even going to link to the original article, but it is linked in the article I have linked). Why would Edward Snowden, a tech specialist, have access to UFO documents? Why would UFO documents have been "need to know" for him to do his job? And why would he bother to wait until he was granted asylum to release the documents? What difference is it going to make at this point?

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Random Facts from History 2

-Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay about flatulence titled, "Fart Proudly." (Source)

-The first message sent over the internet in 1969 was "LO." They were attempting to type "LOGIN" but the system crashed while processing all the information. (Source)

-Greek statues were originally painted, but their colors faded over time. (Source)

-Pirates wore eyepatches to have one eye adjusted for the top deck and one eye adjusted for the darkness below deck. (Source)

-Adolph Hitler was Time Magazine's Man of the year in 1938 and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1939 (though it's said the nomination was supposed to be satirical). (Source 1) (Source 2)

-Teddy Roosevelt is the only person to ever receive a Nobel Peace Prize and a Congressional Medal of Honor, the two highest awards for war and peace. (Source)

-The Statue of Liberty was originally intended for Egypt. (Source)

-Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair. (Source)

-The Eiffel Tower was originally going to be demolished in 1909, but was saved because the antenna added to it could be used for communications. (Source)

-There was a shopping mall in ancient Rome that was 4 stories tall with 150 shops and offices.

(Click here for a larger version of the image below)